I realize lightning is complex and confusing but you could totally do what you are talking about with kids.

Each one could have a node. They could all open channels with each other. Set their fees to whatever. Open private channels with each other. It would work. It would be a good learning experience. This is how I learned. I had two Pis laying around and set up two nodes. I opened channels and set stats back and forth. If you narrow the focus to learning, this works perfectly well.

I would not expect routing nodes to allow me to open a small channel with me. Just like I would not expect my class project to be a part of Amazon Web Services. The big boys are running businesses, not hobby projects. Additionally, if bitcoin and lightning were based on ideology alone it would be doomed. Bitcoin will succeed based on incentives, not good will or helping a brother out.